Day something or other

After a couple of nights at Dickie Beach, which was great, we moved today to a beautiful beach front park at Mooloolaba, which we picked out when we were here just over a year ago.

i booked it 6 months ago and was lucky to get the last site. Punched the address into the GPS, and followed the arrow. Strange i thought when i knew we had to turn left, but GPS told us to turn right. oh well she knows better than me. We pulled up at the gate and looked at each other.

My "back up" navigator said, "where have you booked us in for the next 10 days"?  "Here, i guess" i said.

So which council in there right mind names 2 caravan parks, The Mooloolaba Family Foreshore Caravan Park?????? And add in small letters "The Esplanade" and "some other street away from everywhere"

Oh well, we are here and at least it is on the water. Jer, Nick and kids arrive tomorrow for a week, we are really looking forward to seeing them.

The weather is awesome at the moment, around 24 each day. Shorts and t-shirts are the fashion.

Blue skies, light winds, boats, boats and more boats going past all day, from small runabouts to huge cruisers. People sunbaking and swimming. Still cannot get used to it after leaving a wet cold Mornington.

More later, and congratulations to the crews from VMR, Southern Pen and Coast Guard on a hugely successful training exercise today, all coordinated by VMR!

A fairly quick trip this morning into Dickie Beach, which i think is a suburb of Caloundra. We stayed here when we collected the van last year. So here for a couple of nights, then a short drive up to Caboolture, where we meet up with Jer, Nick and kids for a week ( going to a wedding and a 21st)

Catching up with friends tomorrow for lunch, which is just a nice short stumble from the van.

We are in an unpowered site for a few days, but as the sun is shining, yep you heard right, the solar will keep up with anything we use. (Last year we went for nearly 6 weeks without plugging in)

We have a couple on one side of us, who live in NZ, but bought an old Troopie a few years ago from Budget Rentals (at 250,000klm), they have wracked up another 100 and still going well. It was fitted out as a camper. They leaver it at an aunty's place in Traralgon, and come out each year for a few months.

The other side are a couple who have a Kimberly van and are on their way home from "up north" having been away 6 weeks. Plenty of red dust and mud on the van. They have told us about a great park run by 7th Day Adventists, where you can leave your van and car there for about $10/week if you go over to Magnetic Island (which we are for 6 nights - A bargain!

A couple of pics from this arvo
Cheers

Catching the afternoon sun

                                            Happy 2 hours about to begin

Day 4, ha ha ha i had to look at yesterday's Blog to see what number day it was.
Today we saw some great country, Moonie, Dalby and some other joints. We drove probably a hundred k's of freshly cropped crops. Buggered if i know what they were, but there were 1000's of acres of em.

Staying at Nanango tonight, which is a nice quiet little town. We picked a well recommended, small park out of the Wiki Camps site, only to be met by the care-taker Allan, who said we can stay there, he thought it was $10 per night, but we had to go to the local estate agent to pay, and by the way the power is not on and the toilets are closed - Great! So we found a $20 a night and with power, and the toilets are open, a bonus.

4:30 and already into the gin

Not a bad camp for the night

                                      view from my bed, must clean the windows tomorrow

Tomorrow we have a short run on 150 k's into into Dickie Beach north of Caloundra for a couple of nights. There we will meet up with friends Dick and Marilla for lunch on Saturday.  

Bye for now

Oh yeah, 334 kilom's today av speed 46, well we did stop for a nice lunch for a while, and got stuck behind a road-train for 20 kilometres on a very narrow winding road. Don't know how those boys do it.

Day 3 and ahhhhhh, i have almost lost count of the days.
Another biggy today 553klm, and for those interested 9.25 hours, average speed 60.

Today we moved from bright green hilly country, to the open plains type country and starting to dry off a bit. Passed through some great iconic towns, like Coonabarabran, Gilgandra Narrabi Junee and a heap of others.

The one thing we did notice when we joined the Newell Highway were the bloody trucks.
I thought the Hume was bad, but had forgotten what the Newell is like. i would love to know how many travel this road. I seem to remember 1000 per night move up and down the Hume, but reckon more and bigger on this road. Heaps of road-works going on

Staying  in Goondiwindi tonight, with the roar of turbos in our ear, i guess we are in for a great night of trying to pick between a Mac and a White and a split shift as they come into town. I hope that all makes sense? I made it up.Been listening to too many Slim Dusty truckin songs.

We spoke to our friends Glenn and Susan through the day, they are heading East toward Mt Isa, we will meet up somewhere a bit further north and may travel together up to the Cape. More on that later.

All for now, i promise photos shortly.
Cheers

Today we had a sleep in, getting away about 9, late yesterday arvo our Hema Navigator decided to go to sleep and not wake up, so after a phone call today to the very helpful Hema Team, we express posted if off to get repaired. Turns out i probably should have taken more notice of the instructions: "Do not leave in direct sunshine for extended periods when not in use". More than likely the batteries will have failed. Thank goodness for Mr Google as a back up.

We have been treating ourselves and staying in caravan parks. Late last year i joined then Kui Parks Club, which gives 10% off, they are run by families and usually a little bit out of town and without the glitz of the Big 4's etc. The trade off  is they are generally about 25% cheaper - Wahooooo, suits an poor old pensioner couple.
And they have a nice friendly feel about them, to be read as, no dick head nomads in their big fancy vans where after 6pm all you see is the flickering big screen tele, and if you do  meet them going to the bathroom they totally ignore you - Hang on you don't even see them, as they are usually  in their Jacuzzi's in the van. Shite, i'm on a roll now!

We even got a pension discount on 2 electric blankets today - Yep, you read right, it is so bloody cold in mid NSW, minus 1 last night, and pretty near it tonight as i stand out side typing this drivel.

Today we stuffed around a bit and only did 370 kilom's. tomorrow, we will put in a big day, aiming for 550, and stay at Moree, then another one or 2 days to Dickie Beach on the Sunshine coast.

We don't do the really big miles these days, preferring to get away about 8 and into camp no later than 4, we average 70 kilometres per hour, actually 67, (I'm a bit OCD about numbers).
That includes all stops for fuel, coffee etc.  If you know your average, it is easy to plan fairly accurately where you will be around 4, so you can either book in somewhere or look in the Camps Book for a freebie site.

We have been taking a lot of back-roads over the last day and a half, just to see some new country and get off the truck routes. It has been so wet up this way, all of the rivers are in flood, with lots of water up to the road edges, and warning signs everywhere.

Heaps of sheep, so i guess the poor old farmers will be starting to worry about foot-rot..  The grass is such an intense green it looks fake.

By the way Carolyns driving me crazy because she is not as OCD as me.

Cheers

Monday 25/07/2016

We got away at around 0745 this morning, a pretty easy trip up to Seymour, where we stopped for breaky around 1030, then onto the Hume and across to Wagga. Booked into a little caravan park a few k's north. Did about 550 klm today which was pretty easy, so might do the same tomorrow, but then again, might not.
Until next time.

PS if you are really keen on reading this crap, there is a little box to the right that says "Follow by email" If you want to fill in your email address, you will receive an email each time i update.

2016 - Tales from the Trax

Well here we go again!
Heading north on Monday for a couple a months. Lots of places to go and friends to catch up with. It's amazing how many people you meet over the years "on the road", in all sorts of strange places.

The van is packed (sort of), the car fuelled - yep before the price went up. I must have saved mytself at least $4, but spent $5 driving around Mornington looking for ther cheapest fuel last night.

In 2017 i will make a New Years resolution to be better at communicating with family and friends, so i have decided to run this Blog, and post it on Facebook, so that anyone who wants to can follow our travels. If you don't just unfriend me, i won't be pissed off.

The good news is that 2017 has not arrived, so if this is the only post, i have not let myself or anypone else down. He he he

There is a lot of house shifting at the moment, family moving into our place to look after our old man of 16 years.



So based on the theory For the first two years, a dog year is equal to 10.5 human years. After that, each dog year equals 4 human years. He is 77 of our years!

So i am nearly as old and silly as he is, however if at 77 i can still run along the beach and sniff bottoms i'll be happy. Have i offended you yet? Well good, unfriend me.

Until next time xxx